The problem is that usually men have tighter feet than women, so the male foot stubbornly resists the demands of high shoes. I'm sure we can all agree that tall shoes are very demanding biomechanically. If your feet can't negotiate with your tall shoes, a few things are likely to happen: you fall down or you give up and take them off. This is not acceptable! Your shoes are way too cute for that! You've got to develop flexibility in your feet and thank God I can show you how to do that.
Of course, men wearing "women's" shoes is not new. I've always adored the Trocks, the ballet company of men who dance in pointe shoes and in drag. You're welcome.
We tend to think of our feet in only one dimension: the-looking-down-at-your-foot-from-above-dimension. (You thought there were only 3 dimensions, didn't you?) This plane is the most familiar: the top-view plane:
There's the profile plane:
And then there's the head-on view (also called the transverse plane):
Anyway, the five metatarsals (if you don't know what or where metatarsals are, read this post) move in this transverse, or head-on, plane when you step on your foot. And they don't all move the same direction.
Look carefully and critically at the foot and you will notice it can be divided into two distinct sections: what Eric Franklin calls an "ankle-foot" and a "heel-foot".
Top view:
Bottom view:
The first 3 metatarsals (rays 1-3) are related to the talus and we can call this the ankle-foot; while rays 4 & 5 relate to the heel (calcaneus) and voila! It's the heel foot.
Here's the profile view:
...and the head-on view:
The heel-foot and the ankle-foot function somewhat separately although they are (obviously) very reliant on each other for stability. The metatarsals don't move forward/back or swing like pendulums... they rotate along the long axis. Now because:
-- the 1st-3rd rays move with the midfoot (cuneiforms and navicular) and the talus in one group
--and because the 4th-5th rays move with the cuboid and heel-bone (calcaneus) in another group, we have a cogwheel effect of the ray.
This motion occurs each time you step on your foot. The weight comes down, the gears turn, and the sole of the foot spreads out like a puddle of pancake batter. Pick your foot up, and the opposite happens. The gears turn the other direction and the foot domes like a suction cup under suction.
Put a pebble on the floor and try to pick it up with the middle of your foot -- not your toes, the MIDDLE of your foot. (Yeh, go ahead and massage out that cramp you just got. I'll wait.) This is your foot doming. This happens every time you lift your heel in walking, or push strongly out of the starter's blocks in a race, or jump up in the air.
If you're a dancer, visualize standing on the line between rays 3 and 4 -- this is your perspective. Rays 1-3 and 4-5 turn en dehors as you releve, and en dedans as you plie. Imagine that you are lifted up into releve because your foot domes first. Ahhh. Isn't that magic? The power doesn't come solely from your glutes, hamstrings or calf muscles (this is SO important for those who have achilles tendonitis!!!!) -- it can also come from the muscles that live entirely between the tips of your toes and your ankle.
I'll post a video of the embodiment of this movement next time.
Scientific rumblings about whether running shoes deliver on their promises have been growing louder in recent years. In 2008, an influential review article in The British Journal of Sports Medicine concluded that sports-medicine specialists should stop recommending running shoes based on a person’s foot posture. No scientific evidence supported the practice, the authors pointed out, concluding that “the true effects” of today’s running shoes “on the health and performance of distance runners remain unknown.”
The problem with assessing your foot posture and then recommending a certain shoe type (cushiony/soft or supportive/rigid or middle-of-the-road) is that your static foot posture is not necessarily indicative of your foot rhythm in gait. I tend to overpronate on my right foot and yet I have very high arches. The shoe salesmen from this article would tell me I need a cushiony shoe because of my overpronation, and yet a rigid shoe for my high arches. See? Ridiculous. I'm proud of the researcher quoted at the end of the article because he recommends readers listen to their body and pick running shoes based on that. Yay! One point for our side! Researchers don't usually recommend kinesthetic awareness because they like to measure things, and subjective thoughts are impossible to objectively measure.
I'm barefoot most of the time because that's what Pilates instructors do, but when I do wear shoes I often pick my Vibram toe gloves. I just wish they were flesh colored, because I'm 5'2" and wear a size 9 shoe. I look like *$&%* Minnie Mouse.
The above image is from Thieme's excellent Atlas of Anatomy. Get it if you don't got it.
I met a new client this week who suffered a Lisfranc fracture in a head-on car wreck. This is when the midfoot, where the long metatarsals meet the cuneiforms and cuboid, dislocates and/or fractures. It appears that this fracture is missed probably 20% of the time. (see footnote)
The thing to watch out for with Pilates clients with this fracture is discomfort when the foot is on the Reformer's footbar, on the push-through bar or in the footstraps. Basically, anytime the foot is positioned with the weight on the arch will be uncomfortable for this client.
If you're doing the feet in straps variations, it might be helpful to steal the Gyrotonic foot-loops (not Froot-Loops) because it transfers some of the load onto the ankle.
Reference: (Hardcastle PH, Reschauer R, Kutscha-Lissberg E, et al. Injuries to the tarsometatarsal joint. Incidence, classification and treatment. J Bone Joint Surg Br 1982;64:349-56.)
I'm sure you remember the foot is constructed of arches (from the toes to the heel is the longitudinal arch and from the big toe to the little toe is the transverse arch). Your weight depresses these arches slightly with every step, just like pressing down on the toilet plunger compresses and deforms the suction cup end.
Instead of sticking you to the floor, however, like this guy...
this spreading or widening of your foot is an energy absorber. (But wouldn't it be cool to go up the sides of buildings like SpiderMan or a tree frog with your sticky suction-cup feet?)
When you land a jump, your feet spread out for a couple of very sensible reasons: to distribute your weight over a wider area, to stabilize your landing, to maximally disseminate the landing force. Don't believe me? Then try jumping in stilettos. Have you ever tried on new shoes that felt great as long as you were sitting, but absolutely killed when you stood up? That's your transverse arch spreading out like a suction cup.
It would seem therefore, that pointe shoes do not make any sense.
Take them out of the box and they are very rigid. They are made of cardboard and glue and covered in satin; some have a carbon-fiber shank in the sole to provide support and longevity to the shoe. When they are new they are very supportive to the foot, but most uncomfortable. Each dancer has her own personalized method for softening up her pointe shoes: hammering, scraping, closing in a door, warming and reshaping, etc.
When pointe shoes are new and stiff it is very difficult for the transverse arch to widen and flatten out and you feel it as compression. Pointe shoes are at their peak in mid-life (just like people). This is when they have softened enough to allow the toe box to widen a bit for the natural rhythms of the foot and yet not so soft that they can't provide the necessary support for dancing on the tips of your toes.
You know all this already, though, from your own experience. Your gut tells you that these Jimmy Choos
will probably be more uncomfortable than these Keens
Every step you take moves through a gait cycle. Look at the activity of the right foot: half of the time you are standing on it (stance phase) or swinging it forward and preparing for the next step (swing phase). The stance phase is made up of the following events: heel strike, foot flat, heel off and finally toe off. Here's an illustration of the gait cycle.
When the foot moves through toe-off (that's the second leg to the right of the shaded leg in the above illustration), normally the big toe is the last bit to leave the ground. The very last scrap of propulsion your body is going to get is going to come from this moment. Do you think the big toe can provide much oomph for the rest of the body? After all, it's not very big....
The big toe is ingeniously designed. Its tendons are long and thin so that the belly of the muscle is located much higher up, in the calf. This image is from Thieme's General Anatomy textbook. It's the mostest awesomest anatomy book ever. Go visit them at the winkingskull.com or buy it at amazon.
This illustration shows the muscle flexor hallucis longus (a long name like that describes the muscle - that is it flexes a joint, it's attached to the big toe, and it's very long) as well as some others. To find the flexor hallucis longus, look at the base of the big toe and follow that gray tendon upward, behind the inside ankle bone and toward the outside of the calf muscle. Look at how big the belly of that muscle is! It's extremely powerful (or at least has the potential to be). The larger the cross-section of the muscle, the more force it can generate. As in:
Sorry, I got distracted there for a moment. 'K, look at his shoulder, that is the muscle belly of his deltoid.
That's a muscle with a lot of potential for power, and it attaches directly to the bones it affects. There's no long thin tendon attaching it to a bone far away. The big toe's ingenious design allows our feet to be bony and light, and yet still have access to power. Like a long extension cord! If our feet had to pack the muscle in right on top of the bones, our feet would look like big pillows stuffed with sausages. Ick. Nothing fun like this would ever happen again:
Watch sprinters bursting out of the blocks at the beginning of a race; of course that power is coming from the posterior hips and thighs, but don't dismiss the contribution of the big toe and its flexor hallucis longus. For dancers, this muscle is essential for jumps and releves.
I have a few Pilates clients now and then who have arthritis in their feet and do not tolerate the Feet in Straps series on the Universal Reformer very well because Pilates is usually done barefoot. These dance sneakers can help. They are lightweight and do not block the foot and ankle from pointing and flexing. They are also great for jazz class or Zumba class. Available at discountdance.com. (Gail, these are the shoes I spoke of the other day in class.)
Many anatomy texts attribute balance to the inner ear, identifying the vestibular system as the organ of balance and equilibrium. But it's just one piece of the puzzle. Humans also rely on visual cues and on sensory information such as the sensations picked up by the soles of your feet.
Stand up with your feet about fist-width apart and close your eyes for a moment. Can you sense that your body is not completely still? You are swaying slightly, typically forward and backward, constantly adjusting your center of gravity over your feet. This oscillation is called postural sway and is the result of a feedback loop between your sensory system, your musculoskeletal system and gravity. It's completely normal. Now stand on one leg and close your eyes again. Did this sway increase? Could you keep your eyes closed for 10 seconds, balanced on one leg?
This gentle sway is present whenever you are in quiet standing, such as in line at the grocery. If you have "good" balance, your postural sway is likely to be slight and hardly noticeable. If you have "bad" balance, your postural sway is probably such a large oscillation you can hardly perform the closed-eyes balance without your eyes popping open and grabbing for a hand-rail.
Postural sway does not negatively impact quiet standing until one of the members of the loop is compromised in some way. We can safely assume gravity isn't going to develop an issue, so chances are it's the sensory or the musculoskeletal system. These two systems work together so closely to determine and maintain balance that they can be collectively termed the sensorimotor system. One system detects what's going on and the other corrects any problems: whoops I'm falling forward, I better get my weight back... whoops now I'm falling backward, I better get my weight forward.... you get the idea. People who have bad balance basically have a slow reaction to the shifting. By the time their sensory system has detected the shift of the center of gravity, and the motor system has organized a response, the person has already stumbled. Being drunk slows your motor system and that shows up as poor balance or slurred speaking (1:39 below - I love MST3K.)
Poor balance is as if your sensorimotor system was chronically drunk and this has a very negative impact on fitness. Many older adults reduce their physical activity levels because of a fear of falling (Lee, Arthur & Avis, 2008), and this lack of activity of course slows their reaction time even more. A negative spiral that will likely end with a fall, a hip fracture and a long stay in a nursing home. Yikes.
So what to do?
--Challenge your balance with every workout. If you don't work out, then add simple balance exercises to your day. Hiyamizu, Fukumoto, Kataoka, and Yagi (2009) found adults between 61 and 71 improved their postural sway by simply standing for 10 seconds each day for 10 days on foam pads of differing density. The subjects were asked to detect the firmness of the foam pads they stood on, thereby engaging the sensory system in an active way. At the end of the trial, the researchers found significant improvements in postural sway.
--Take a ballet class at the local community college. Don't worry, no one else is looking at you; they are all too busy looking at themselves. Dance is fantastic balance training and it makes your tush look good.
--Take a tai chi class. Good for your balance, good for calming the monkey mind.
--Facing a wall, stand on one leg. Watch an imaginary spider crawl up the wall, so that you tip your head up. Try to maintain your balance as you watch the "spider" go up and down a few times. Repeat on the other leg.
One of my favorites is the baby BOSU, it is one of the very best gifts for a 6-year old ever. My boy simply bounced on this thing for about 3 years. Tons of fun, and versatile for adults too because it provides the unstable training surface, doesn't take up so much room, and is cheaper than the larger version.
Reference: Lee, L., Arthur, A., & Avis, M. (2008). Using self-efficacy theory to develop interventions that help older people overcome psychological barriers to physical activity: a discussion paper. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 45, 1690-1699.
(image from Thieme's excellent Atlas of Anatomy - get it if you don't got it)
Bunions are very painful because of the stress placed on the ligaments and because the weird bone configuration creates a difficult shape for shoes. If you have bunions and you've tried on a pair of stilettos, you know what I mean. If a bone is jointed to another bone, nature has covered it with thick, smooth cartilage so motion (bending or flexing or whatever) is cushioned, smooth, and gliding. If the bones don't fit together they way Nature intended, the smooth gliding surfaces are not against each other anymore and, well, Houston we have a problem.
The real tragedy with bunions is that once they start, it's like that stone rolling downhill. You can see by the illustration above that the angle of the ligaments is a real problem. The more the big toe joint deviates, the more the hallucis ligaments reinforce the deviation. (By the way, anything to do with the big toe is labeled hallucis or hallux. It's from the medieval latin hallex and allux meaning thumb-toe.) Beneath the ball of your hallux, are two tiny sesamoid bones (from the Greek for sesame, as in seeds) that sit in a bony groove. They are encompassed within a tendon and act as joint protection and leverage providers. If they are not positioned properly, their ability to function well is lost. In the illustration above, you can see the sesamoids are not positioned below the first metatarsal any longer, but have been pulled toward the midline of the foot. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
So, what to do about it? Well, try to stop bunions from getting worse. Many people who have bunions have "flattened arches" or pronate too much, so be aware of your weight on your feet and don't stand on the inner border of your foot all the time. It's not like you don't have a choice, you know. Strengthening your hip muscles that turn your legs out will help lessen this over-pronation in standing. Those muscles would be your deep lateral rotators such as the gemelli, obturators, and piriformis, and yeah your glutes too but don't neglect the deep rotators. Stretch the internal rotators (hamstrings, inner thighs and the tensor fasciae latae) and massage the IT band with a foam roller. I'll post some descriptions later.
If you have bunions that hurt, stand up and massage the bottom of your foot with a dead tennis ball. Eric Franklin sells some wonderful massage balls that are softer than tennis balls and very versatile. He describes many special foot routines in his books that I use all the time with clients and for myself. His book "Conditioning for Dance" has some great routines, and so does his "Inner Focus, Outer Strength".
If you really love feet and would like to do a workshop, drop me an e-mail (link at the top of the page) and I'll schedule a Dynamic Foot class for the Carmel/Monterey area.
The Grecian foot can make normal functions difficult, and this goes for dancers and for non-dancers. Remember, the Grecian foot is the shape where the first toe is much shorter than the second toe. The picture below doesn't truly illustrate a Grecian foot because the first and second metatarsals heads are very close. However, we will use it to illustrate where the devil those metatarsals are located.
Remember, the metatarsals are the long bones in the foot. This image is from Thieme's Atlas of Anatomy. It kicks Netter's butt. Hard. Get this book and keep it at your breakfast table for tons of fun and for grossing out your kids over pancakes.
A shorter first metatarsal can cause the second toe to bear more weight than it's been designed for. Imagine a rock embedded in your bicycle tire but still sticking out a little bit. Each time that rock comes around, you will feel a little "bump" in the road. The rock is going to bear more weight than the rest of the tire, because it is sticking out and the weight of the bicycle (and you with all those holiday cookies you've been snarfing) cannot be distributed evenly. Same thing with your feet. Every time you roll through your foot, as in taking a step, if your second metatarsal is longer than your first, its head will be the rock in the bicycle tire. Now the first metatarsal was designed for this: its head is larger and thicker, it has two tiny little bones (sesamoids) beneath it that help to maximize leverage and protect the joint margin. Not so for the second metatarsal. Depressing, huh.
For dancers with the Grecian shape, balancing on the balls of the feet (demi-pointe) is more difficult because the base of support is very narrow. Instead of having a bunch of metatarsal heads for a wide base to balance on, like this:
...the Grecian Foot dancer balances with too much weight on the second metatarsal head OR they shift their ankle toward the little toe (in a sickle) to distribute their weight over metatarsal heads 2-5.
However, all of this does NOT mean that people with a Grecian foot shape limp around like Quasimodo haplessly. No, it just means that they will likely have tight feet, and are likely to supinate or pronate (stand on the outer or inner edges of their feet, respectively). This client will enjoy footwork on the Reformer with the arch of the foot or the heels on the bar, and the feet in straps series, because the forefoot is open-chain. This way the 2nd metatarsal head's length has no effect on the rest of the foot.
An ideal solution for walking would be a shoe with a divot cut out of the footbed. This would be similar to riding that bicycle with the rock in the tire on a road with a tiny divot every so often for the rock to land in. If it was perfectly aligned, you would no longer feel that bump in the road.
A bit impractical, I know, but a good image nonetheless.
Unfortunately, you can't grow your first metatarsal longer, and I sure as hell hope you won't go ask a surgeon to shorten the length of your second metatarsal. (The doc would refuse anyway. I hope.) The best advice I can give you is to stretch out your feet. If the second metatarsal head is mobile enough that it can move upward, toward the top surface of the foot with each step, that will help to minimize the forces and distribute the weight. So... stretch your feet! I'll see if I can post some stretches later.
